


Witchlight

by RhetoricalQuestion



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Harry Styles - Freeform, Louis Tomlinson - Freeform, M/M, Romance, Shapeshifting, Simon Cowell - Freeform, Slow Build, Soulmates, Supernatural - Freeform, Vampires, Witches, a bit - Freeform, actual book, an old, is - Freeform, it mentions high school, kind of a remix?, l.j smith, lady instead, of a man, one direction - Freeform, only genderswap, panther
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-18
Updated: 2015-01-28
Packaged: 2018-01-12 22:02:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1202182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhetoricalQuestion/pseuds/RhetoricalQuestion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Circle Daybreak hires Louis, a shape shifting panther, to guard a new Wild Power. But when Louis falls in love with the Wild Power's soulmate, his love could destroy everything...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter I

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is already a book. I know. I was bored and felt like remaking it Larry Stylinson version. I don't own anything, nor do I want to be sued. thanks.

The mall was so peaceful. There was no hint of the terrible thing that was about to happen.

It looked like any other shopping mall in New York on a Sunday afternoon in December.  
Modern. Brightly decorated. Crowded with customers who knew there were only ten shopping days until Christmas. Warm, despite the chilly gray skies outside. Safe.

Not the kind of place where a monster would appear.

Louis walked past a display of "Santa Claus Through the Ages" with all his senses alert and open. And that meant a lot of senses. The glimpses he caught of himself in darkened store windows showed a high-school-aged boy in a sleek jumpsuit, with brown hair styled to sweep across his forehead and cool blue eyes. But he knew that anybody who watched him closely was likely to see something else-a sort of prowling grace in the way he walked and an inner glow when the blue eyes focused on anything.

Louis Tomlinson didn't look quite human. Which was hardly surprising, because he wasn't. He was a shape shifter, and if people looking at him got the impression of a half-tamed panther on the loose, they were getting it exactly right.

"Okay, everybody." Louis touched the pin on his collar, then pressed a finger to the nearly invisible receiver in his ear, trying to tune out the Christmas music that filled the mall. "Report in."

"Niall here." The voice that spoke trough the receiver was light, almost lilting, but professional. "I'm over by Sears. Haven't seen anything yet. Maybe she's not here."

"Maybe," Louis said shortly into the pin-which wasn't a pin at all but an extremely expensive transmission device. "But she's supposed to love shopping, and her parents said she was headed this way. It's the best lead we've got. Keep looking."

"Zayn here." This voice was cooler and softer, emotionless. "I'm in the parking lot, driving by the Bingham Street entrance. Nothing to report-wait." A pause, then the ghostly voice came back with a new tension: "Louis, we've got trouble. A black limo just pulled outside Brody's. They know she's here."

Louis' stomach tightened, but he kept his voice level. "You're sure it's them?"

"I'm sure. They're getting out- a couple of vampires and... something else. A young guy, just a boy really. Maybe a shape shifter. I don't know for sure; he isn't like anything I've seen before." The voice was troubled, and that troubled Louis. Zayn Malik was a vampire with a brain like the Library of Congress. Something he didn't recognize?

"Should I park and come help you?" Zayn asked.

"No," Louis said sharply. "Stay with the car; we're going to need it for a fast getaway. Niall and I will take care of it. Right, Niall?"

"Oh, right, Boss. In fact, I can take 'em all on myself; you just watch."

"Oi, you watch your mouth." But Louis had to fight the grim smile that was tugging at his lips. Niall Horan was Zayn's opposite-a witch and inclined to be emotional. His odd sense of humor had lightened some black moments.

"Both of you stay alert," Louis said, completely serious now. "You know what's at stake."

"Right, Boss." This time, both voices were subdued.

They did know.

The world.

The girl they were looking for could save the world-or destroy it. Not that she knew that... yet. Her name was Taylor Swift, and she had grown up as a human child. She didn't realize that she had the blood of witches in her and that she was one of the four Wild Powers destined to fight against the time of darkness that was coming.

She's about to get quite a surprise when we tell her, Louis thought.

That was assuming that Louis' team got to her before the bad guys did. But they would. They had to. There was a reason they'd been chosen to come here, when every agent of Circle Daybreak in North America would have been glad to do this job.

They were the best. It was that simple.

They were an odd team-vampire, witch and shape shifter- but they were unbeatable. And Louis was only seventeen, but he already had a reputation for never losing.

And I'm not about to blow that now, he thought, " This is it, kiddies," he said. "No more talking until we ID this girl. Good luck." Their transmissions were scrambled, of course, but there was no point taking chances. The bad guys were extremely well organised.

Doesn't matter. We'll still win, Louis thought, and he paused in his walking long enough really to expand his senses.

It was like stepping into a different world. They were senses that a human couldn't even imagine. Infrared. He saw body heat. Smell. Humans didn't have any sense of smell, not really. Louis could distinguish Coke from Pepsi from across a room. Touch. As a panther, Louis had exquisitely sensitive hairs all over his body, especially on his face.

Even in human form, he could feel things with ten times the intensity of a real human. He could feel his way in total darkness by the air pressure on his skin. Hearing. He could hear both higher and lower pitches than a human, and he could pinpoint an individual cough in a crowd. Sight. He had night vision like-well, like a cat's.

Not to mention more than five hundred muscles that he could move voluntarily. 

And just now, all his resources were attuned to finding one teenage girl in this swarming mall. His eyes roved over faces; his ears pricked at the sound of every young voice; his nose sorted through thousands of smells for the one that would match the T-shirt she'd taken from Taylor's room.

Then, just as he froze, catching a whiff of something familiar, the receiver in his ear came to life.

"Louis-I spotted her! Hallmark, second floor. But they're here, too."

They'd found her first.

Fuck. Louis cursed soundlessly. Aloud, he said, "Zayn, bring the car around to the west side of the mall. Niall, don't do anything. I'm coming."

The nearest escalator was at the end of the mall. But from the map in his hand, he could see that Hallmark was directly above him on the upper level. And he couldn't waste time.

Louis gathered his legs under him and jumped.

One leap, straight up. He ignored the gasps--and a few shrieks--of the people around him as he sprang. At the top of his jump, he caught the railing that fenced off the upper-level walkway. He hung for a second by his hands, then pulled himself up smoothly.

More people were staring. Louis ignored them. They got out of his way as he headed for the Hallmark store.

Niall was standing with his back to the display window of the store beside it. He was short, with blond-dyed hair and a pixie face. Louis edged up to him, careful to keep out of the line of sight of the Hallmark.

"What's up?"

"There's three of them," Niall murmured in a barely audible voice. "Just like Zayn said. I saw them go in-and then I saw her. They've got her surrounded, but so far they're just talking to her." He glanced sideways at Louis with dancing blue eyes. "Only three-we can take them easy."

"Yeah, and that's what worries me. Why would they only send three?"

Niall shrugged slightly. "Maybe they're like us-the best."

Louis only acknowledged that with a flicker of his eyebrows. He was edging forward centimeter by centimeter, trying to get a glimpse of the interior of the Hallmark shop between the stockings and stuffed animals in the display window.

There. Two guys in dark clothing almost uniforms-vampire thugs. Another guy Louis could see was only as a partial silhouette through a rack of Christmas ornaments.

And her. Taylor. The girl everybody wanted.

She was beautiful, almost impossibly so. Louis had seen a picture, and it had been beautiful, but now he saw that it hadn't come within miles of conveying the real girl. She had the silvery-fair hair and violet eyes that showed her Swift blood. She also had an extraordinary delicacy of features and grace of movement that made her as pretty to watch as a white kitten on grass. Although Louis knew she was seventeen, she seemed slight and childlike. Almost fairylike. And right now, she was listening with wide, trusting eyes to whatever the silhouette guy was saying.

To Louis' fury, he couldn't make it out. He must be whispering.

"It's really her," Niall breathed from beside Louis, awed. "The Witch Child. She looks just like the legends said, just like I imagined." His voice turned indignant. "I can't stand to watch them talk to her. It's like-blasphemy."

"Keep your pants on," Louis murmured, still searching with his eyes. "You witches get so emotional about your legends."

"Well, we should. She's not just a Wild Power, she's a pure soul." Niall's voice was softly awed. "She must be so wise, so gentle, so farsighted. I can't wait to talk to her." His voice sharpened. "And those thugs shouldn't be allowed to talk to her. Come on, Louis, we can take them fast. Let's go."

"Niall, don't-"

It was too late. Niall was already moving, heading straight into the shop without any attempt at concealment.

Louis cursed again. But he didn't have any choice now. "Zayn, stand by. Things are going to get exciting," he snapped, touching his pin, and then he followed.

Niall was walking directly toward the little group of three guys and Taylor as Louis reached the door. The guys were looking up, instantly alert, Louis saw their faces and gathered himself for a leap.

But it never happened. Before he could get all her muscles ready, the silhouette guy turned-and everything changed.

Time went into slow motion. Louis saw his face clearly, as if he'd had a year to study it. He wasn't bad looking --quite handsome, actually. He didn't look much older than he was, and he had clean, nicely molded features. He had a small, compact body with what looked like hard muscles under his clothes. His hair was black, shaggy but shiny, almost like fur. It fell over his forehead in an odd way, a way that looked deliberately disarrayed and was at odds with the neatness of the rest of him.

And he had eyes of obsidian.

Totally opaque.

Shiny silver-black, with nothing clear or transparent about them. They revealed nothing; they simply threw light back at anyone who looked into them. They were the eyes of a monster, and every one of Louis' five hundred voluntary muscles froze in fear.

He didn't need to hear the roar that was far below the pitch that human ears could pick up. He didn't need to see the swirl of dark energy that flared like a red-tinged black aura around him. He knew already, instinctively, and he tried to get the breath to yell a warning to Niall.

There was no time.

He could only watch as the boy's face turned toward Niall and power exploded out of him.

He did it so casually. Louis could tell that it was only a flick of his mind, like a horse slapping its tail at a fly. But the dark power slammed into Niall and sent him flying through the air, arms and legs outstretched, until he hit a wall covered with display plates and clocks. The crash was tremendous.

NIALL! Louis almost yelled it out loud.

Niall fell behind the cash register counter, out of Louis' line of sight. Louis couldn't tell if he were alive or not. The cashier who had been standing behind the counter went running and screaming toward the back of the shop. The customers scattered, some following the cashier, some dashing for the exit.

Louis hung in the doorway a second longer as they streamed out around him. Then he reeled away to stand with his back against the window of the next shop, breathing hard. There were coils of ice in her guts.

A dragon.

He was a dragon.


	2. Chapter II

They'd gotten a dragon.

Louis' heart was pounding.

Somehow, somewhere, the people of the Night World had found one and awakened him. And they'd paid him --bribed him-- to join their side. Louis didn't even want to imagine what the price might have been. Bile rose in his throat, and he swallowed hard.

Dragons were the oldest and most powerful of the shape shifters, and the most evil. They had all one to sleep thirty thousand years ago--or, rather, they had been put to sleep by the witches. Louis didn't know exactly how it had been done, but all the old legends said the world had been better off since.

And now one was back.

But he might not be fully awake yet. From the glimpse he'd had, his body was still cold, not much heat radiating from it. He'd been sluggish, not mentally alert.

It was the chance of a lifetime.

Louis' decision was made in that instant. There was no time to think about it--and no need. The inhabitants of the Night World wanted to destroy the human world. And there were plenty of them to do it, vampires and dark witches and ghouls. But this was something in another league altogether. With a dragon on their side, the Night World would easily crush Circle Daybreak and all other forces that wanted to save the humans from the end of the world that was coming. It would be no contest.

And as for that little girl in there, Taylor the Witch Child, the Wild Power meant to help save humankind--she would get swatted like a bug if she didn't obey the dragon.

Louis couldn't let that happen.

Even as Louis was thinking it, he was changing. It was strange to do in a public place, in front of people. It went against all his most deeply ingrained training. But he didn't have time to dwell on that.

It felt good. It always did. Painful in a nice way, like the feeling of having a tight bandage removed. A release.

His body was changing. For a moment, he didn't feel like anything--he almost had no body. He was fluid, a being of pure energy, with no more fixed form than a candle flame. He was utterly...free.

And then his shoulders were pulling in, and his arms were becoming more sinewy. His fingers were retracting, but in their place long, curved claws were extending. His legs were twisting, the joints changing. And from the sensitive place at the end of his spine, the place that always felt unfinished when he was in human form, something long and flexible was springing. It lashed behind him with fierce joy.

His jumpsuit was gone. The reason was simple: he wore only clothes made out of the hair of other shape shifters. Even his boots were made of the hide of a dead shifter. Now both were being replaced by his own fur, thick black velvet with darker black rosettes. He felt complete and whole in it.

His arms--now his front legs--dropped to the ground, his paws hitting with a soft but heavy thump. His face prickled with sensitivity; there were long, slender whiskers extending from her cheeks. His tufted ears twitched alertly.

A rasping growl rose in his chest, trying to escape from his throat. He held it back--that was easy and instinctive. A panther was by nature the best stalker in the world.

The next thing he did was instinctive, too. He took a moment to gauge the distance from himself to the black-haired boy. He took a step or two forward, his shoulders low. And then he jumped.

Swift. Supple. Silent. His body was in motion. It was a high, bounding leap designed to take a victim without an instant of warning. He landed on the dark boy's back, clinging with razor claws.

His jaws clamped on the back of his neck. It was the way panthers killed, by biting through the spine.

The boy yelled in rage and pain. grabbing at Louis as his weight knocked him to the ground. It didn't do any good. His claws were to deep in his flesh to be shaken off, and his jaws were tightening with bone-crushing pressure. A little blood spilled into his mouth, and he licked it up automatically with a rough, pointed tongue.

More yelling. He was dimly aware that the vampires were attacking him, trying to wrench him away, and that the security guards were yelling. He ignored it all. Nothing mattered but taking the life under his claws. 

He heard a sudden rumble from the body beneath him. It was lower in pitch than anything human ears could pick up, but to Louis it was both soft and frighteningly loud.

Then the world exploded in agony.

The dragon had caught hold of his fur just above the right shoulder. Dark energy was crackling into him, searing him. It was the same black power he'd used on Niall, except that now he had direct contact.

The pain was scalding, nauseating. Every nerve ending in Louis' body seemed to be on fire, and his shoulder was a solid red blaze. It made his muscles convulse involuntarily and spread a metallic taste through his mouth, but it didn't make him let go. He held on grimly, letting the waves of energy roll through him, trying to detach his mind from the pain.

What was frightening was not just the power but the sense of the dragon's mind beneath it. Louis could feel a terrible coldness. A core of mindless hatred and evil that seemed to reach back into the mists of time. This creature was old. And although Louis couldn't tell what he wanted with the present age, he knew that the dragon was focused on right now.

Killing Louis. That was all he cared about.

And of course he was going to succeed. Louis had known that from the beginning. 

But not before I kill you, he thought.

He had to hurry, though. There almost certainly were other Night People in the mall. These guys could call reinforcements, and they would probably get them. 

You can't ... make me ... let go, he thought.

He was fighting to close his jaws. He was much tougher than a normal human. Panther jaws could crush the skull of a young buffalo. And right now, he could hear muscles crunching, but still he couldn't finish him.

Hang on... hang on...

Black pain... blinding...

He was losing consciousness.

For Niall, he thought.

Sudden strength filled him. The pain didn't matter anymore. He tossed his head, trying to break his neck, wrenching it back and forth.

The body underneath him convulsed violently. He could feel the little lapsing in it, the weakening that meant death was close. Louis felt a surge of fierce joy.

And then he was aware of something else. Someone was pulling him off the dragon. Not in the fumbling way the thugs had. This person was doing it skillfully, touching pressure points to make his claws retract, even getting a finger into his mouth, under the short front teeth between the lethal canines.

No! Louis thought. From his panther throat came a short, choking snarl. He lashed out with his back legs, trying to rip the person's guts out.

_No._ The voice didn't come in through Louis' ears. It was in his mind. A boy's voice. And it wasn't afraid, despite the fact that he was now scrabbling weakly, still trying to turn his stomach to spaghetti. It was concerned and anxious but not afraid. _Please--you have to let go._

Even as he said it, he was pushing more pressure points. Louis was already weak. Now, all at once, he saw stars. He felt his hold on the dragon loosen.

And then he was being jerked backward, and he was falling. A hundred and ten pounds of black panther was landing on whoever had yanked him free.

Dizzy...

His vision was blurred, and his body felt like rubber. He hardly had enough strength to twist his head toward the boy who had pulled him away.

Who was he? _Who?_

His eyes met blazing green-gold ones.

Almost the eyes of a leopard. It gave Louis a jolt. But the rest of the boy was different. Dark curls over a rather pale and strained face with perfectly sculpted features. Human, of course. And those eyes seemed to be blazing with worry and intensity rather than animal ferocity.

Not many people could look at an angry panther like that.

He heard his mental voice again. _Are you alright?_

And then, for just an instant, something happened. It was as if some barrier had been punctured. Louis felt not just his voice but his _worry_ inside his head. Louis could feel...him.

His name.... Harry. And he's someone born to command, he thought. He understands animals. Another shape shifter?

But I can't feel what animal he turns into. And there's no bloodthirstiness at all...

Louis didn't understand it, and his panther brain wasn't in the mood to try. It was grounded in the here and now, and all it wanted was to finish what he started.

He wrenched his eyes away from Harry and looked at the dragon.

Yes, he was still alive but badly wounded. A little snarl worked out of Louis' throat. The vampire thugs were still alive, too; one was picking up the injured dragon and hauling him away.

"Come on!" he was shouting in a voice sharp with panic. "Before that cat recovers-"

"But the girl!" the second vampire said. "We don't have the girl." He looked around. Taylor was standing by a display of porcelain figures, looking just as pale and graceful as any of them. She had both hands at her throat and seemed to be in shock.

The second vampire started toward her.

 _No_ , Louis thought. But he couldn't get his legs to move. He could only like helplessly and stare with burning eyes.

"No!" a voice beside him said, out loud this time. Harry was jumping up. He got between the vampire and Taylor.

The vampire grinned, a particularly nasty grin. "You don't look like a fighter to me, pretty boy."

It wasn't exactly true, Louis thought. Harry wasn't pretty, he was beautiful. With those curls and his colouring, he looked like a prince from a storybook. Albeit, a rather young and inexperienced prince. He stood his ground, his expression grim and determined.

I won't let you get to her," he said steadily.

 _Who the hell is this guy?_ Louis thought.

Taylor, pale and wide-eyed, glanced up at him, too. And then Louis saw her... melt. Her drawn features softened; her lips parted. Her eyes seemed to quiver with light. She had been cowering away from the body, but now her body relaxed just a little.

He certainly _looked_ more like a champion defender than Louis had. He was clean, for one thing. Louis' fur was matted with his own blood and the dragon's. More, he couldn't help the little raspy snarls of rage and despair he was making, showing dripping teeth in a red-stained muzzle.

Too bad he was about to be slaughtered.

He _wasn't_ a fighter. Louis had seen the inside of his mind, and he knew he didn't have the tiger instinct. The vampire was going to massacre him. 

The vampire started forward.

And a voice from the front of the store said, "Hold it right there."


	3. Chapter III

Louis turned his head quickly. 

Zayn was standing there, cool and imperturbable as always, arms crossed over his chest. His raven-colored hair wasn’t even ruffled; his eyes, chocolate brown, were steady. And he was holding an ironwood fighting stick with a very sharp point.

Louis growled faintly in relief. You couldn’t ask Zayn to be creative—his mind didn’t work that way. But on any question of logic, he was unbeatable, and he had nerves of ice. More important right now, he was a superb fighter.

“If you want to play, why don’t you try me?” he suggested, and whipped the fighting stick around expertly a few times. It whistled in the air, traced a complicated figure, and ended up casually across his shoulder. Then he slowly extended the point toward the vampire’s throat.

“Yeah, and don’t leave me out.” This voice was husky and shaky but still grim. It came from behind the counter. Niall was pulling himself up. He coughed once, and then stood straight, facing the vampire. Energy, orange and pulsating, flared between his cupped hands. Witch power.

You’re alive, Louis thought. He couldn’t suppress the flash of relief. 

The vampire looked from one boy to the other. Then he glanced at Louis, who was lying on his side, feebly trying to make his legs work. His tail lashed furiously.

“Come on!” the other vampire shouted. He was staggering under the weight of the dragon, heading for the door. “Let’s get Azhdeha out of here. He’s the most important thing.”

The first vampire hesitated one instant, then whirled and plunged after his friend. Together, they hustled the dragon out into the mall.

Then they were gone.

Louis gave one final gasping snarl and felt himself change. This time, it felt more like a snail falling out of a shell. His claws dissolved, his tail withered, and he slumped into his human body.

“Boss! Are you okay?” Niall came toward him, a little unsteadily.  
Louis raised his head, brown hair falling in front of his eyes. He pushed himself up with his arms and looked around, taking stock.

The shop was quiet. It was also a wreck. Niall’s impact with the wall had knocked off most of the decorative plates and clocks there. Louis’ fight with the dragon had trashed a lot of the shelves. There were shattered Christmas ornaments everywhere, little glittering fragments of scarlet and holly green and royal purple. It was like being in a giant kaleidoscope.

And outside, chaos was gathering. The entire fight had only taken about five minutes, but all the time it had been going on, people had been running away from the shop and screaming. Louis had noticed them; he had simply filed them away in his mind as unimportant. There had been nothing he could do about them.

Now, there were security officers closing in, and someone had undoubtedly called the police.

He pushed with his arms again and managed to stand up.

“Zayn.” It hurt his throat to speak. “Where’s the car?”

“Right down there.” Zayn pointed at the floor. “Directly below us, parked outside the Mrs. Fields cookie store.”

“Okay. Let’s get Taylor out.” Louis looked at the young girl with the shimmering hair who as yet hadn’t spoken a single word. “Can you walk?”

Taylor stared at him. She didn’t say anything. Stunned and frightened, Louis guessed. Well, a lot had happened in the last few minutes.

“I know this all seems bizarre to you, and you’re probably wondering who we are. I’ll explain everything. But right now, we have to get out of here. Okay?”

Taylor shrank a little, trembling.

Not exactly a hero, Louis thought. Or quick on the uptake. Then he decided he was being unfair. This girl was the Witch Child; she undoubtedly had hidden strengths.

“Come on,” Harry said to Taylor gently. “He’s right; it isn’t safe here.”

Taylor looked up at him earnestly. She seemed about to agree. Then she gave a little shiver, shut her eyes, and fainted.

Harry caught her as she fell.

Louis stared.

“She’s too pure to deal with this kind of stuff,” Niall said defensively. “Violence and all. It’s not the same as being chicken.

It was at that exact moment that Louis could pinpoint his first real doubts about the new Wild Power.

Harry looked down at the girl who lay in his arms like a broken lily. He looked at Louis.

“I—“

“You take her; we’ll surround you and cover you,” Louis said, cutting him off. He knew his hair was in complete disarray, a wild cyclone of brown. His sleek jumpsuit was torn and stained, and he was clutching his right shoulder, which still throbbed in agony. But he must have looked fairly commanding, because Harry didn’t say another word, just nodded and started toward the door.

Zayn led the way in front of him. Niall and Louis fell in behind. They were ready to fight, but when the security guards with walkie-talkies saw Zayn whirling his stick, they backed away. The ordinary people, curious onlookers attracted by all the noise, not only backed away but ran. Lots of them screamed.

“Go,” Louis said. “Fast. Go.”

They made it to Mrs. Fields without anybody trying to stop them.

A girl with a red apron flattened herself against a wall as they thrust their way behind the counter and into the sanctum full of industrial-sized ovens in the back. A gangly boy dropped a tray with a clang, and lumps of raw cookie dough scattered on the floor.

And then they were bursting through the back entrance, and there was the car, a white limousine illegally parked at the curb. Zayn whipped out a key chain and pressed a button, and Louis heard the click of doors unlocking.

“Inside!” He said to Harry. He got in. Niall ran around the car to get in the other side. Zayn slid into the driver’s seat. Louis ducked in last and snapped, “Go!” even as he slammed the door.

Zayn floored it.

The limousine shot forward like a dolphin—just as a security truck sped up from the rear. A police car appeared dead in front of them.

Zayn was an excellent driver. The limo swerved with a squeal of tires and peeled out of another of the parking lot’s exits. A second police car swung toward them as Zayn dodged traffic. This one had lights and sirens on. Zayn gunned the engine, and the limo surged forward again. A freeway on-ramp was ahead.

“Hang on,” Zayn said briefly.

They were passing the on-ramp—they were past it. No, they weren’t. At the last possible second, the limp screamed into a ninety-degree turn. Everyone inside was thrown around. Louis clenched his teeth as his wounded arm hit the window. Then they were shooting up the on-ramp and onto the freeway.

With a little patter, cat’s paws of rain appeared on the windshield. Louis, leaning forward to look over Zayn’s shoulder, was happy. With icy rain and the low, gray fog, they probably wouldn’t be chased by helicopter. The big limousine roared past the few other cars on the road and Niall sat looking out the rear window, murmuring a spell to confuse and delay any pursuit.

“We lost them,” Zayn said. Louis sat back and let out his breath. For the first time since he’d entered the mall, he allowed himself to relax minutely.

We did it.

At the same moment, Niall turned. He pounded the backseat with a hard fist. “We did it! Louis—we got the Wild Power! We…” His voice trailed off as he saw Louis’ face. “And, uh… I guess I disobeyed orders.” His pounding was self-conscious now; he ducked his blond head. “Um, I’m sorry, Boss.”

“You’d better be,” Louis said. He held Niall’s gaze a moment, then said, “You could have gotten yourself killed, witch—and for absolutely no good reason.”

Niall grimaced. “I know. I lost it. I’m sorry.” But he smiled timidly at Louis afterward. Louis’ team knew how to read him.

“Sorry, too, Boss.” Zayn said from the front seat. He slanted a glance at Louis from his chocolate-colored eyes. “I wasn’t supposed to leave the car.”

“But you thought we might need a little help,” Louis said. He nodded, meeting Zayn’s eyes in the mirror. “I’m glad you did.”

The faintest flush of pleasure colored Zayn’s cheeks.

Harry cleared his throat.

“Um, for the record, I’m sorry, too. I didn’t mean to charge in like that in the middle of your operation.”

Louis looked at him.

He was smiling slightly, hesitantly, the way Niall had. A nice smile. The corner of his mouth naturally quirked upward, giving him a hint of mischief in all but the most serious moments. His green-gold eyes were apologetic but hopeful.

“Yeah, who are you, guy?” Niall was looking him up and down, his dark lashes twinkling. “Did Circle Daybreak send you? I thought we were on this mission alone.”

“You were. I belong to Circle Daybreak, but they didn’t send me. I just—well, I was outside the shop, and I couldn’t just stand there…” His voice died. The smile died, too. “You’re really mad, aren’t you?” he said to Louis.

“Mad?” He took a slow breath. “I’m furious.”

Harry blinked. “I don’t—“

“You stopped me, I could have killed him!”

His gold-green eyes opened in shock and something like remembered pain. “He was killing you.”  
“I know that,” Louis snarled. “It doesn’t matter what happens to me. What matters is that now he’s free. Don’t you understand what he is?”

Niall was looking sober. “I don’t know. But he hit me with something powerful. Pure energy like what I use, but about a hundred times stronger.”

“He’s a dragon,” Louis said. He saw Zayn’s shoulders stiffen, but Niall just shook his head, bewildered. “A kind of shape shifter that hasn’t been around for about thirty thousand years.”

“He can turn into a dragon?”

Louis didn’t smile. “No, of course not. Don’t be silly. I don’t know what he can do—but a dragon is what he is. Inside.” Niall suddenly looked queasy as this hit home. Louis turned back to Harry.

“And that’s what you let loose on the world. It was the only chance to kill him—nobody will be able to take him by surprise like that again. Which means that everything he does after this is going to be your fault.”

Harry shut his eyes, looking dizzy. “I’m sorry. But when I saw you—I couldn’t let you die…”

“I’m expendable. I don’t know who you are, but I’m willing to bet you’re expendable. The only one here who isn’t expendable is her.” Louis jerked a thumb at Taylor, who lay in a pool of pale silver-gold hair on the seat beside Harry. “And if you think that a dragon isn’t going to come back and try to get her again, you’re crazy. I’d have died happy knowing that I’d gotten rid of him.”

Harry’s eyes were open again, and Louis saw a flicker in them at the “don’t know who you are.” But at the end, he said quietly, “I’m expendable. And I’m sorry. I didn’t think—“

“That’s right! You didn’t! And now the whole world is going to suffer!”

Harry shut up and sat back.

And Louis felt odd. He wasn’t sorry for slapping him down, he told himself. He deserved it.

But his face was so pale now, and his expression was so bleak. As if he’d not only understood everything he’d said but expanded on it in his own mind. And the look of hurt in his eyes was almost insupportable.

Good, Louis told himself. But then he remembered the moment he’d spent inside his mind. It had been a sunlit place, warm and open, without dark corners or shadowed crevasses.

Now that would be gone forever. There was going to be a huge black fissure in it, full of horror and shame. A mark he would carry for the rest of his life.

Well, welcome to the real world, Louis thought, and his throat tightened and hurt. He stared out the window angrily.

“See, it’s really important that we keep Taylor safe,” Niall was saying quietly to Harry. He didn’t ask why, and Louis had noticed before that he hadn’t asked why Taylor wasn’t expendable. But Niall went on telling him anyway. “She’s a Wild Power. You know about those?”

“Who doesn’t these days?” He said it almost in a whisper.  
“Well, most humans, for one thing. But she’s not just a Wild Power; she’s the Witch Child. Somebody we witches have been expecting for centuries. The prophecies say she’s going to unite the shape shifters and the witches. She’s going to marry the son of the First House of the shape shifters. And then the two races will be united, and all the shape shifters will join Circle Daybreak, and we’ll be able to hold off the end of the world at the millennium.” Niall finished out of breath. Then he cocked his blond head. “You don’t seem surprised. Who are you, guy? You didn’t really say before.”

“Me?” He was still looking into the distance. “I’m nobody, compared to you people.” Then he gave a little wry smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m expendable.”

Zayn caught Louis’ eye in the rearview mirror, looking concerned. Louis just shrugged. Sure, Niall was telling this expendable guy a lot. But it didn’t matter. He wasn’t on the enemy side; and anyway, the enemy knew everything Niall was saying. They had identified Taylor as the third Wild Power; the dragon proved that. They wouldn’t have sent him if they hadn’t been sure.

But still, it was time to get rid of this interfering boy. They certainly couldn’t take him to the safe house where they were taking Taylor.

“Nobody tailing us?” Louis said.

Zayn shook his head. “We lost them all miles ago.”

“You’re sure?”

“Dead certain.”

“Okay. Take any exit, and we’ll drop him off.” He turned to Harry. “I Hope you can find your way home.”

“I want to go with you.”

“Sorry. We have important things to do.” Louis didn’t need to add, And you’re not part of them.

“Look.” Harry took a deep breath. His pale face was strained and exhausted, as if he’d somehow lost three days’ sleep since he’d gotten into the limo. And there was something close to desperation in his eyes. “I need to go with you. I need to help, to try and make up for what I did. I need to make it right.”

“You can’t.” Louis said it even more brusquely than he meant to. “You’re not trained, and you’re not involved in this. You’re no good.”

He gave Louis a look. It didn’t disagree with anything he’d said, but somehow, for just an instant, it made him feel small. His greeny-gold eyes were just the opposite of the dragon’s opaque ones. Louis could see for miles in them, endless light-filled fathoms, and it was all despair. A sorrow so great that it shook him.

He knew it must be costing Harry a lot to show him that, to hold himself so open and vulnerable. But he kept looking at him steadily.

“You don’t understand,” he said quietly. “I have to help you. I have to try, at least. I know I’m not in your class as a fighter. But I…” He hesitated. “I didn’t want to say this-“

At that moment, Taylor groaned and sat up.

Or tried to. She didn’t make it all the way. She put a hand to her head and started to fall of the seat.

Harry steadied her, putting an arm around her to keep her propped up. 

“Are you all right?” Louis asked. He leaned forward, trying to get a look at the girl’s face. Niall was leaning forward, too, his expression eager.

“How’re you feeling? You’re not really hurt, are you? You just fainted from the shock.”

Taylor looked around the limousine. She seemed utterly confused and disoriented.

“It’s such an honor to meet you,” Niall said, and his voiced turned formal as he uttered the traditional greeting of the witches. “Unity, Daughter of Hellewise. I’m Niall Horan.” He dimpled. “But it’s really ‘Arm-of-Lightning.’ My family’s an old one, almost as old as yours.”

Taylor stared at him. Then she stared at the back of Zayn’s black-colored head. Then her eyes slid to Louis.

Then she sucked in a deep breath and started screaming.


	4. Chapter IV

Niall's jaw dropped.

"You--you-- _keep away from me_!" Taylor said, and then she got another breath and started shrieking again. She had good lungs, Louis thought. The shrieks were not only loud, they were piercing and pitched high enough to shatter glass. Louis' sensitive eardrums felt as if somebody were driving ice picks through them.

"All of you!" Taylor said. She was holding out both hands to fend them off. "Just let me go! I want to go home!"

Niall's face cleared a little. "Yeah, I'll bet you do. But, you see, that place is dangerous. We're going to take you somewhere safe--"

"You kidnapped me! Oh, God, I've been _kidnapped._ My parents aren't rich. What do you _want_?"

Niall looked at Louis for help.

Louis was watching their prize Wild Power grimly. He was getting a bad feeling about this girl.

"It's nothing like that." He kept his voice quiet and level, trying to cut through the hysteria.

"You--don't you even talk to me!" Taylor waved a hand at Louis desperately. "I _saw_. You changed. You were a monster! There was blood all over--you _killed_ that man." She buried her face in her hands and began to sob.

"No, he didn't." Niall tried to put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "And anyway, he attacked me first."

"He did not. He didn't touch you." The words were muffled and jerky.

"He didn't _touch_ me, no, but--" Niall broke off, looking puzzled. He tried again. "Not with his _hands_ , but--"

In the front seat, Zayn shook his head slightly, amused. "Boss--"

"I'm way ahead of you." Louis said grimly. This was going to be difficult. Taylor didn't even know that the dragon was the bad guy. All she had seen was a boy trying to talk with her, a boy inexplicably flying against a wall, and a panther that attacked unprovoked.

Louis' head hurt.

"I want to go _home_ ," Taylor repeated. All at once, with surprising speed, she lunged for the door handle. It took Louis' animal reflexes to block her, and the movement sent another pang through his injured shoulder.

Strangely, as it happened, pain seemed to flicker across Harry's face. He reached out and gently pulled Taylor back.

"Please don't," he said. "I know this is all really strange, but you've got it backwards. That guy who was talking to you-- _he_ was going to kill you. And Louis saved you. Now they want to take you somewhere safe and explain everything."

Taylor raised her head and looked at him. She looked for a long time. Finally, she said, still almost whispering, "You're all right. I can tell."

Can she? Louis wondered. Does she see something in his eyes? Or does she just see that he's a handsome brunet guy with chocolate curls?

"So you'll go with him?" Harry asked.

Taylor gulped, sniffed, and finally nodded. "Only if you go, too. And only for a little while. After that, I want to go home."

Niall's face cleared--at least slightly. Louis stopped guarding the door, but he wasn't happy.

"Straight to the safe house, Boss?" Zayn asked, swinging the car back toward the freeway.

Louis nodded grimly. He glanced at Harry. "You win." He didn't have to say the rest. The girl would only go if he went. Which made him a member of the team.

For the present.

He smiled, very faintly. There was noting smug in it, but Louis looked again.

Nothing was going the way he'd planned. And Niall might still have faith in his Witch Child, but Louis' doubts had crystallized.

 _We are all,_ he thought, _in very big trouble._

And there was a dragon that might start looking for them any minute. How fast did dragons recover, anyway?

Big trouble, Louis thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The safe house was a nondescript brick bungalow. Circle Daybreak owned it, and nobody in the Night World knew about it.

That was the theory, anyway. The truth was that no place was safe. As soon as they had hidden the limo in an ivy-covered carport in back and Louis had made a phone call to Circle Daybreak headquarters, he told Niall to set up wards around the house.

"They won't be all that strong," Niall said. "But they'll warn us if something tries to get in." He bustled around, doing witch things to the doors and windows.

Zayn stopped Louis on his own trip of inspection. "We'd better look at your arm."

"It's all right."

"You can barely move it."

"I'll manage. Go look at Niall; he hit that wall pretty hard."

"Niall's okay; I already checked him. And, Louis, just because you're the team leader doesn't mean you have to be invulnerable. It's all right to accept help sometimes."

"We don't have time to waste on _me_!" Louis went back to the living room.

He'd left Taylor in the care of Harry. He hadn't actually told him that, but he'd left them alone together, and now Louis found he'd gotten a root beer from the refrigerator and some tissues from the bathroom. Taylor was sitting huddled on the couch, holding the drink and blotting her eyes. She jumped at every noise.

"Okay, now I'm going to try and explain," Louis said, pulling up an ottoman. Niall and Zayn quietly took seats behind him. "I guess the first thing I should tell you about is the Night World. You don't know what that is, do you?"

Taylor shook her head.

"Most humans don't. It's an organization, the biggest underground organization in the world. It's made up of vampires and shapeshifters and witches--well, not witches now. Only a few of the darkest witches from Circle Midnight are still part of it. The rest of them have seceded."

"Vampires..." Taylor whispered.

"Like Zayn," Louis said. Zayn smiled, a rare full smile that showed sharp teeth. "And Niall is a witch. And you saw what I am. But we're all part of Circle Daybreak, which is an organization for everybody who wants to try to live together in peace."

"Most of the Night People hate humans," Niall said. "Their only laws are that you can't tell humans about the Night World and that you can't fall in love with them."

"But even humans can join Circle Daybreak," Louis said.

"And that's why you want me?" Taylor looked bewildered.

"Well, not exactly." Louis ran a hand over his forehead. "Look, the main thing you need to know about Circle Daybreak is what it's trying to do right now. What it's trying to keep from happening." Louis paused, but there was no easy way to say it. "The end of the world."

"The end of the _world_?"

Louis didn't smile, didn't blink, just waited it out while Taylor sputtered, gasped, and looked at Harry for some kind of sanity. When she finally ran down, Louis went on.

"The millennium is coming. When it gets here, a time of darkness is going to begin. The vampires _want_ it to happen; they want the darkness to wipe out the human race. They figure that then they'll be in charge."

"The end of the world," Taylor said.

"Yes. I can show you the evidence if you want. There are all sorts of things happening right now that prove it. The world is falling into disorder, and pretty soon it's going to fall apart. But the reason we need you is because of the prophecies."

"I want to go home."

I bet you do, Louis thought. For a moment, he felt complete sympathy for the girl. "Like this." He quoted:

"Four to stand between the light and the shadow,  
Four of blue fire, power in their blood.  
Born in the year of the blind Maiden's vision;  
Four less one and darkness triumphs."

"I really don't know what you're _talking about_ \--"

"Four Wild Powers," Louis went on relentlessly. "Four people with a special gift, something nobody else has. Each one of them born seventeen years ago. If Circle Daybreak can get all four of them to work together--and _only_ if Circle Daybreak can get them to work together--then we can hold off the darkness."

Taylor was shaking her head, edging away even from Harry. Behind Louis, Niall and Zayn stood up, closing in. They faced her in a solid block, unified.

"I'm sorry," Louis said. "You can't escape it. You're part of it. You're a Wild Power."

"And you should be happy," Niall burst out, unable to contain himself any longer. "You're going to help save the world. You know that thing I did back in the Hallmark shop? With the orange fire?" He cupped his hands. "Well, you're full of _blue_ fire. And that's so much stronger--nobody even knows what it can do."

Taylor put out her hands. "I'm sorry. I _really_ am. But you guys are nuts, and you've got the wrong person. I mean, I don't know, maybe you're not completely nuts. The things that happened back at that store..." She stopped and gulped. "But I don't have anything to do with it." She shut her eyes, as if that would bring the real world into focus. "I'm not any Wild Power," She said more firmly. "I'm just a human kid--"

"Actually, no," Zayn said.

"You're a lost witch," Niall cut in. "You're a Swift. A Hearth-Woman. That's the most famous family of witches; they're like--they're royalty. And you're the most famous of all of them. You're the Witch Child. We've been waiting for you."

Louis shifted. "Niall, maybe we don't need to tell her all of this right now."

But Niall was racing on. "You're the one who's going to unite the shapeshifters and the witches. You're going to marry a prince of the shapeshifters, and then we're all going to be like this." He held up two intertwined fingers.

Taylor stared at him. "I'm only seventeen. I'm not marrying _anybody_."

"Well, you can do a promise ceremony; that's binding. The witches would accept it, and I think the shapeshifters would." He glanced at Louis for confirmation.

Louis pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm just a grunt; I can't speak for the 'shifters."

Niall was already turning back to Taylor, his eyes wide in earnestness. "Really, you know," He said, "it's incredibly important. Right now, the Night World is split. Vampires on one side, witches on the other. And the shapeshifters--well, they could go either way. And _that's_ what could determine the battle."

"Look--"

"The witches and the shapeshifters haven't been allies for thirty thousand--"

" _I don't care!_ "

Full-blown hysteria.

It was about as scary as a six-week-old kitten hissing, but it was the best raving Taylor could manage. Both her small fists were clenched, and her face and throat were flushed.

"I don't care about the shapeshifters _or_ the witches. I'm just a normal kid with a normal life, and I want to go _home_! I don't know anything about fighting. Even if I believed all this stuff, I couldn't help you. I hate PE; I'm totally uncoordinated. I get sick when i see blood. And--" She looked around and made an inarticulate sound of exasperation. "And _I lost my purse_."

Louis stood up. "Forget your purse."

"It had my mom's credit card in it. She's going to _kill me_ if I come home without that. I just--where's my purse?"

"Look, you little idiot," Louis said. "Worry about your mother, not about her credit card."

Taylor backed up a step. Even in the middle of a hysterical fit, she was beautiful beyond words. Flushed, wet cheeks. Her eyes were dark as twilight, shadowed by heavy lashes--and they wouldn't quite meet Louis'.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Yes, you do. Where's your mom going to be when the end of the world comes? Is a credit card going to save her then?"

Taylor was in a corner now. Louis could hear both Zayn and Niall making warning noises. He knew himself that this was the wrong way to get someone on their side. But patience wasn't one of Louis' great virtues. Neither was keeping his temper.

"Let's see," Harry said, and his voice was like cool water flowing through the room. "Maybe we could take a little break--"

"I don't need advice from you," Louis snapped. "And if this little idiot is too stupid to understand that she can't turn her back on this, we have to show her."

"I'm not an idiot!"

"Then you're just a big baby? Scared?"

Taylor sputtered again. But there was unexpected fire in her violet eyes as she did it. She was looking right at Louis now, and for a moment Louis thought that there might be a breakthrough.

Then he heard a noise.

His ears picked it up before either Niall's or Zayn's. A car on the street outside.

"Company," Louis said. He noticed Harry had stiffened. Had he heard it?

Niall was moving to stand behind the door; Zayn slipped as quietly as a shadow to the window. It was dark outside now, and vampire eyes were good at night.

"Blue car," Zayn said softly. "Looks like them inside."

"Who?" Taylor said.

Louis gestured at her to be quiet. "Niall?"

"I have to wait until they cross the wards." A pause, then he broke into a smile. "It's her!"

"Who?" Taylor said. "I thought nobody was supposed to know we were here."

Good thinking. Logical, Louis thought. "This is someone I called. Someone who came all the way from Nevada and has been waiting to see you." He went to the door.

It took a few minutes for the people in the car to get out--they moved slowly. Louis could hear the crunch of footsteps and the sound of a cane. He opened the door.

The woman who stepped in was old. So old that anyone's first thought on seeing her was _How can she still be alive?_ Her skin was creased into what seemed like hundreds of translucent folds. Her hair was pure white and almost as fine as Taylor's, but there wasn't much of it. Her already tiny figure was stooped almost double. She walked with a cane in one hand and the other tucked into the arm of a nondescript young man.

But the eyes that met Louis' were anything but senile. They were bright and almost steely, gray with just the faintest touch of lavender.

"The Goddess's bright blessings on you all," she said, and smiled around the room.

It was Niall who answered. "We're honoured by your presence--Grandma Swift."

"In the background, Taylor demanded plaintively for the third time, "Who?"

"She's your great-great-aunt," Niall said, his voice quiet with awe. "And the oldest of the Swifts. She's the Crone of all the Witches."

Taylor muttered something that might have been, "She looks like it."

Louis stepped in before Niall could attack her. He introduced everyone. Grandma Swift's keen eyes flickered when Harry's turn came, but she merely nodded.

"This is my apprentice and driver, Paul," she told them. "He goes everywhere with me, so you can speak freely in front of him."

Paul helped her to the couch, and everyone else sat, too--except Taylor, who stubbornly stayed in her corner.

"How much have you told her?" Grandma Swift asked.

"Almost everything," Louis said.

"And?"

"She--isn't quite certain."

"I _am_ certain," Taylor piped up. "I want to go home."

Grandma Swift extended a knobby hand toward her. "Come here, child. I want to take a look at my great-great-niece."

"I'm not your great-great-niece," Taylor said. But with those steely-but-soft eyes fixed on her, she took one step forward.

"Of course you are; you just don't know it. Do you realize, you're the image of my mother when she was your age? And I'll bet your great-grandmother looked like her, too." Grandma Swift patted the couch beside her. "Come here. I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Simone, and your great-grandmother was my little sister, Elspeth."

Taylor blinked slowly. "Great-Grandmother Elspeth?"

"It was almost ninety years ago that I last saw her. It was just before the First World War. She and our baby brother, Emmeth, were separated from the rest of the family. We all thought they were dead, but they were being raised in England. They grew up and had children there, and eventually some of those children came to America. Without ever suspecting their real heritage, of course. It's taken us a long time to track down their descendants."

Taylor had taken another involuntary step. She seemed fascinated by what the old woman was saying. "Mom always talked about Great-Grandmother Elspeth. She was supposed to be so beautiful that a prince fell in love with her."

"Beauty has always run in our family," Grandma Swift said carelessly. "Beauty beyond comparison, ever since the days of Hellewise Hearth-Woman, our foremother. But that isn't the important thing about being a Swift."

"It isn't?" Taylor said doubtfully.

"No." The old woman banged her cane. "The important thing, child, is the art. Witchcraft. You are a witch, Taylor; it's in your blood. It always will be. And you're the gift of the Swifts in this last fight. Now, listen carefully." Staring at the far wall, she recited slowly and deliberately:

"One from the land of kings long forgotten;  
One from the hearth which still holds the spark;  
One from the Day World where two eyes are watching;  
One from the twilight to be one with the dark."

Even when she had finished, the words seemed to hang in the air of the room. No one spoke.

Taylor's eyes had changed. She seemed to be looking inside herself, at something only she could see. It was as if deeply buried memories were stirring.

"That's right," Grandma Swift said softly. "You can feel the truth of what I'm telling you. It's all there, the instinct, the art, if you just let it come out. Even the courage is there."

Suddenly, the old woman's voice was ringing. "You're the spark in the poem, Taylor. The hope of the witches. Now, what do you say? Are you going to help us beat the darkness or not?"


	5. Chapter V

Everything hung in the balance, and for a moment Louis thought that they had won. Taylor's face looked different, older and more clearly defined. For all her flower-petal prettiness, she had strong little chin.

But she didn't say anything, and her eyes were still hazy.

"Paul," Grandma Swift said abruptly. "Put in the video."

Her apprentice went to the VCR. Louis stared at the tape in his hand, his heart picking up speed.

A video. Could that be what he thought it was?

"What you're about to see is--well, let's just say it's very secret," Grandma Swift said to Taylor as the apprentice fiddled with the controls. "So secret that there's only one tape of it, and that stays locked up in Circle Daybreak headquarters at all times. I'm the only person I trust to carry it around. All right, Paul, play it."

Taylor looked at the TV apprehensively. "What is it?"

The old woman smiled at her. "Something the enemy would really like to see. It's a record of the other Wild Powers--in action."

The first scene on the tape was live news coverage of a fire. A little girl was trapped in a second-story apartment, and the flames were getting closer and closer. Suddenly, the tape went into slow motion, and a blue flash lit the screen. When the flash died away, the fire was out.

"The blue fire," Grandma Swift said. " The first Wild Power we found did that, smothered those ordinary flames with a single thought. That's just one example of what it can do."

The next scene was of a dark-haired young man. This one was obviously deliberately filmed; the boy was looking directly into the camera. He took a knife from his belt and very coolly made a cut on his left wrist. Blood welled up in the wound and dripped to the ground.

"The second Wild Power," Grandma Swift said. "A vampire prince."

The boy turned and held out the arm that was bleeding. The camera focused on a large boulder about thirty feet away. And then the tape went into slow motion again, and Louis could actually _see_ the blue fire shoot out from his hand.

It started as a burst, but what followed was a steady stream. It was so bright that the camera couldn't deal with it; it bleached out the rest of the picture. But when it hit the rock, there was no doubt about what happened.

The two-ton boulder exploded into gravel.

When the dust settled, there was only a charred crater in the ground. The dark-haired boy looked back at the camera, then shrugged and targeted another boulder. He wasn't even sweating.

Louis' breath came out involuntarily. His heart was pounding, and he knew his eyes were glittering. He saw Harry glance sideways at him but ignored him.

Power like _that_ , he thought. I never really imagined it. If I had that power, the things I could do with it...

Before he could help himself, he had turned to Taylor.

"Don't you see? That's what you'll bring to our side if you choose to fight with us. That's what's going to give us a _chance_ against them. You have to do it, don't you understand?"

It was the wrong thing to say. Taylor's reaction to the video had been completely different from Louis' own. She was staring at the TV as if she were watching open-heart surgery. _Unsuccessful_ open-heart surgery.

"I don't... I can't do anything like that!"

"Taylor--"

"And I don't want to! No. Look." A veil seemed to have dropped down behind Taylor's eyes. She was facing Louis, but Louis wondered if she actually saw anything. She spoke rapidly, almost frantically.

You said you had to talk to me, so I listened. I even watched your--your special effects stuff." She waved a hand at the screen where the boy was blowing up more boulders. "But now it's over, and I'm going home. This is all--I don't know. It's all too _weird_ for me! I'm telling you, I can't _do_ that kind of thing. You're looking at the wrong person."

"We looked at all your cousins first," Grandma Swift said. "Thea and Blaise. Gillian, who was a lost witch like yourself. Even poor Sylvia, who was seduced over to the enemy side. But it was none of them. Then we found you." She leaned forward, trying to hold Taylor with her eyes. "You have to accept it, child. It's a great responsibility and a great burden, but no one else can do it for you. Come and take your place with us."

Taylor wasn't listening.

It was as simple as that. Louis could almost see the words bouncing off her. And her eyes...

Not a veil, Louis thought. A _wall_ had dropped down. It had slammed into place, and Taylor was hiding behind it.

"If I don't get home soon, my mother's going to go crazy. I just ran out for a few minutes to get some gold stretchy ribbon--you know, the kind that has like a rubber band inside? IT seems like I'm always looking for that. We have some from last year, but it's already tied, and it won't fit on the presents I'm doing."

Louis stared at her, then cast a glance heavenward. He could see the others staring, too. Niall's mouth was hanging open. Zayn's eyebrows were in his hair. Harry looked dismayed. 

Grandma Swift said, "If you won't accept your responsibilities as a Wild Power, will you at least do your duty as the Witch Child? The winter solstice is next Saturday. On that night, there's going to be a meeting of the shapeshifters and the witches. If we can show them a promise ceremony between you and the son of the First House of the shapeshifters, the shapeshifters will join us."

Louis half expected Taylor to explode. And in the deepest recesses of his own heart, he wouldn't really have blamed her. He could understand Taylor losing it and saying, _What do you think you're doing, waltzing in and trying to hitch me up to some guy I've never met? Asking me to fight is one thing, but ordering me to marry--giving me away like some object--that's another._

But Taylor didn't say anything like that. She said, "And I've still got so many presents to wrap, and I'm not anywhere near done shopping. Plus, this week at school is going to be completely crazy. And Saturday, that's the night Jaime and Liam Payne are having their birthday party. I can't miss that."

Louis lost it.

"What is wrong with you? Are you deaf or just stupid?"

Taylor talked right over him. "They're twins, you know. And I think Liam kind of likes me. Their family is really rich, and they live in this big house, and they only invite a few people to their parties. All the girls have crushes on him. Liam, I mean."

"No," Louis answered his own question. "You're just the most selfish, spoiled little brat I've met!"

"Louis," Zayn said quietly. "It's no good. The harder you push her, the more she goes into denial."

Louis let out his breath. He knew that it was true, but he had never been more frustrated in his life.

Grandma Swift's face suddenly looked very old and very tired. "Child, we can't force you to do anything. But you have to realize that we're not the only ones who want you. The other side knows about you, too. They won't give up, and they _will_ use force."

"And they've got a lot of force." Louis turned to the old woman. "I need to tell you about that. I didn't want to say it on the phone, but they already tried to get Taylor once today. We had to fight them at the mall." He took a deep breath. "And they had a dragon."

Grandma Swift's head jerked up. Those steely lavender gray eyes fixed on Louis. "Tell me."

Louis told everything. As he did, Grandma Swift's face seemed to get older and older, sinking into haggard lines of worry and sadness. But all she said at the end was, "I see. We'll have to try to find out how they got him, and what exactly his powers are. I don't think there's anybody alive today who's an expert on--those creatures."

"They called him Azhdeha."

"Hmm--sounds Persian."

"It is," Harry said. "It's one of the old names for the constellation Draco. It means 'man-eating serpent.'"

Louis looked at him in surprise. He had been sitting quietly all this time, listening without interrupting. Now he was leaning forward, his green eyes intense.

"The shapeshifters have some old scrolls about dragons. I think you should ask for them. They might have some idea about what powers they have and how to fight them. I saw the scrolls once, but I didn't really study them; I don't think anybody has."

He'd seen the ancient scrolls? Then he _was_ a shapeshifter, after all. But why hadn't he been able to sense an animal form for him?

"Harry--" Louis began, but Grandma Swift was speaking. 

"It's a good idea. When I get them, I'll send copies to you and Louis. He's one of your people, after all, and you may be able to help figure out how to fight him."

Louis wanted to say indignantly that he wasn't any connection to him, but of course that wasn't true. The dragons had ruled the shapeshifters, once. Their blood still ran in the First House, the Drache family that ruled the shapeshifters today. Whatever that monster was, he _was_ one of his people.

"So it's decided. Louis, you and your team will take Taylor home. I'll go back to Circle Daybreak and try to find out more about dragons. Unless..." She looked at Taylor. "Unless this discussion has changed your mind."

Taylor, unbelievably, was still prattling, having a conversation about presents with nobody in particular. It was clear that her mind hadn't changed. What wasn't clear to Louis was whether she _had_ a mind.

But Louis had other things to worry about.

"I'm sorry--but you're not serious, are you? About taking her home?"

"Perfectly serious," Grandma Swift said.

"But we _can't_."

"We can, and we have to. You three boys will be her bodyguards--and her friends. I'm hoping that you can persuade her to accept her responsibility by Saturday night at midnight, when the shapeshifters and the witches convene. But if not..." Grandma Swift bowed her head slightly, leaning on her cane. She was looking at Taylor. "If not," she said in a barely audible tone, "you'll just have to protect her for as long as you can."

Louis was choking. "I don't see how we can protect her at all. With all respect, ma'am, it's an insane idea. They have to know where her house is by now. Even if we stick beside her twenty-four hours a day--and I don't see how we can even do _that_ , with her family around--"

The white head came up, and there was even a faint curve to the old woman's lips. "I'll take care of that. I'll have a talk with her mother--young Anna, Elspeth's granddaughter. I'll introduce myself and explain that her daughter's long-lost cousins' have come to visit for Christmas."

And undoubtedly do something witchy to Anna's mind, Louis thought. Yeah, after that they'd be accepted, although none of them looked a bit like Taylor's cousins.

"And then _I_ will put up wards around that house." There was a flash like silver lightning in Grandma Swift's eyes as she said it. "Wards that will hold against anything from the outside. As long as nobody inside disturbs them, you'll be safe." She cocked an eyebrow at Louis. "Satisfied?"

"I'm sorry--no. It's still too dangerous."

"then what would you suggest we do?"

"Kidnap her," Louis said instantly. He could hear Taylor stop babbling in the background; he wasn't gaining any Brownie points there. He bulldozed on grimly. "Look, I'm just a grunt; I obey orders. But I think that she's too important for us to just let her run around loose where _they_ might get hold of her. I think we should take her to a Circle Daybreak enclave like the ones where the other Wild Powers are. Where we can protect her from the enemy."

Grandma Swift looked him in the eye. "If we do that," she said mildly, "then we _are_ the enemy."

There was a pause. Louis said, "With all respect, ma'am--"

"I don't want your respect. I want your obedience. The leaders of Circle Daybreak made a firm decision when this whole thing started. If we can't convince a Wild Power by reasoning, we will not resort to force. So your orders are to take your team and stay with this child and protect her as long as you can."

"Excuse me." It was Harry. The others had been sitting and watching silently. Zayn and Niall were too smart to get involved in an exchange like this, but Louis could see that they were both unhappy.

"What is it?" Grandma Swift asked.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to go with them. I could be another 'cousin.' It would make four of us to watch over her--better odds."

Louis thought he might have an apoplexy.

He was so mad, he couldn't even get words out. While he was choking uselessly, Harry was going on. His face still looked pale and strained, like a young soldier coming back from battle, but his dark curls were shining, and his eyes were steady. His whole attitude was one of earnest pleading.

"I'm not a fighter, but maybe I can learn. After all, that's what we're asking Taylor to do, isn't it? Can we ask anything of her that we're not ready to do ourselves?"

Grandma Swift, who had been frowning, now looked him up and down appraisingly. "You have a fine young mind," she said. "Like your father's. He and your mother were both strong warriors, as well."

Harry's eyes darkened. "I'd hoped I wouldn't have to be one. But it looks like we can't always choose."

Louis didn't know what they were talking about or why the Crone of all the Witches knew the parents of this guy he'd met in a mall. But he'd finally gotten the obstruction out of his throat.

"No way!" he said explosively. He was on his feet now, too, brown hair flying as he looked from Grandma Swift to Harry. "I mean it. There is _no way_ I am taking this boy back with us. And you may be leader of the witches, ma'am, but, no offence intended, I don't think you have the authority to make me. I'd have to hear it from the leaders of Circle Daybreak themselves, from Thierry Descouedres or Lady Hannah. Or from the First House of the shapeshifters."

Grandma Swift gave an odd snort. Louis ignored it. "It's not just that he's not a fighter. He's not _involved_ in this. He doesn't have any part in it."

Grandma Swift looked at Harry, not entirely approvingly. "It seems you've been keeping secrets. Are you going to tell him, or shall I?"

"I--" Harry turned from her to Louis. "Listen. I'm sorry--I should have mentioned this before." His eyes were embarrassed and apologetic. "It just--there just didn't seem to be a right time." He winced. "I wasn't in that mall today accidentally. I came by to look for Taylor. I wanted to see her, maybe get to know her a little."

Louis stared at him, not breathing. "Why?"

"Because..." He winced again. "I'm Harry Drache... of the First House of the shapeshifters."

Louis blinked while the room revolved around briefly.

I should have known. I should have _realized_. That's why he seemed like a shapeshifter, but I couldn't get any animal sense from him.

Children of the First House weren't born connected to any particular animal. They had power over all animals, and they were allowed to choose when they became adults which one they would shift into.

It also explained how he'd known which pressure points to use to get him off the dragon. And his telepathy--children of the First House could connect to any animal mind.

When the room settled back into place, Louis realized that he was still standing there, and Harry was still looking at him.

His eyes were almost beseeching.

"I should have explained," he said.

"Well, of course, it was your choice," Louis said stiffly. There was an unusual amount of blood in his cheeks; he could feel it burning. He went on, "And, naturally, I'm sorry if anything I've said has given offence."

"Louis, please don't be formal."

"Let's see, I haven't greeted you properly, or given you my obedience." Louis took his hand, which was well made, long-fingered, and cold. He brought it to his forehead. "Welcome, Drache, son of the First House of the shapeshifters. I'm yours to command, naturally."

There was a silence. Louis dropped Harry's hand. Harry looked miserable.

"You're _really_ mad now, aren't you?" he observed.

"I wish you every happiness with your new bride," Louis said through his teeth.

"He couldn't figure out exactly _why_ he was so mad. Sure, he'd been made a fool of, and now he was going to have to take responsibility for an untrained boy who couldn't even shapeshift into a mouse. But it was more than that.

He's going to marry that whiny little flower in the corner, a voice in Louis' head whispered. He _has_ to marry her, or at least go through a promise ceremony that's just as binding as marriage. If he doesn't, the shapeshifters will never join with the witches. They've said so, and they'll never back down. And if they don't join with the witches... everything you've ever worked for is finished.

 _And your job is to persuade the flower to do her duty,_ the voice continued brightly. _That means you've got to convince her to marry him. Instead of eating her._

Louis' temper flared. _I don't want to eat her,_ he snapped back at the voice. _And I don't care who this idiot marries. It's none of my business._

He realized that the room was still silent, and everyone was watching Taylor and Harry. Taylor had stopped prattling. She was looking at Harry with huge violet eyes. He was looking back, strained and serious.

Then he turned to Louis again. "I'd still like to help, if you'll let me come."

"I told you, I'm yours to command," Louis said shortly. "It's your decision. I'd like to mention that it just makes things a little harder on my team. Now we're going to have to look out for you as well as her. Because, you see, you're _not_ expendable after all."

"I don't want you to look out for me," he said soberly. "I'm not important."

Louis wanted to say, Don't be an idiot. No you, no promise ceremony, no treaty. It's as simple as that. We've _got_ to protect you. But she'd already said more than enough.

Paul was retrieving the tape from the VCR. Grandma Swift was making getting-ready-to-rise motions with her cane. "I think we've stayed here long enough," she said to Louis.

Louis nodded stiffly. "Would you like to come in the limo? Or would you rather follow us to her house?"

Grandma Swift opened her mouth to answer, but she never got the chance. Louis' ears caught the sound of movement outside just before the living room window shattered.


	6. Chapter VI

It was a full-force invasion. Even before the echoes of breaking glass had died, figures in black uniforms were swarming through the window.

Dark ninjas, Louis thought. An elite group made up of vampires and shapeshifters, the Night World experts at sneaking and killing.

Louis' mind, which had been roiling in clouds of stifled anger, was suddenly crystal clear.

"Zayn, take her!" he shouted. It was all he needed to say. Zayn grabbed Taylor. It didn't matter that Taylor was screaming breathlessly and too shocked to want to go anywhere. Zayn was a vampire and stronger than a human Olympic weight lifter. He simply picked Taylor up and ran with her toward the back door.

Without being told, Niall followed close behind, orange energy already sizzling between his palms. Louis knew he would provide good cover-Niall was a fighting witch. He made full use of the new powers that all the Night People were developing as the millennium got closer. As one of the ninjas lunged after them, he let loose with a blast of poppy-colored energy that knocked him sideways.

"Now you!" Louis shouted to Harry, trying to hustle him into the hallway without turning from the ninjas. He hadn't changed and didn't want to if he could avoid it. Changing took time, left you vulnerable for the few seconds that you were between forms. Right now seconds counted.

Harry got a few steps down the hall, then stopped. "Grandma Swift!"

I knew it, Louis thought. He's a liability.

The old woman was still in the living room, standing with her feet braced apart, cane ready. Her apprentice, Paul, was in front of her, working up some witch incantation and tossing energy. They were right in the flow of the ninjas.

Which is as it ought to be. Louis' mind had clicked through the possibilities right at the beginning and had come to the only reasonable conclusion.

"We have to leave her!"

Harry turned to him, his face lit by the multicolored energy that was flying around them. " _What?_ "

"She's too slow! We have to protect you and Taylor. Get moving!"

His features were etched in shock. "You're joking. Just wait here- _I'll_ bring her."

"No! Harry-"

He was already running back.

Louis cursed.

"Go on!" he yelled to Zayn and Niall, who were at the entrance to the kitchen, where the back door was. "Take the limo if you can get to it. Don't wait for us!"

Then he turned and plunged into the living room.

Harry was trying to shield Grandma Swift from the worst of the energy being exchanged. Louis gritted his teeth. This group of ninjas was only the first wave. They were here to breach the wards and make an opening for whatever was going to follow.

Which could be a dragon.

The ninjas hadn't finished their job, though. Most of the wards were holding, and the one that had fallen was on a small window. The dark figures could only squirm in one at a time. The house shook as whoever was outside slammed power at it, trying to break a bigger entrance.

Faintly, Louis heard an engine rev up outside. He hoped it was the limo.

Harry was pulling at Grandma Swift. Paul was grappling hand-to-hand with a ninja.

Louis batted a couple of the sneaks out of his way. He wasn't trying to kill them, just put them out of commission. He had almost reached Harry.

And then he heard the rumbling.

Only his panther ears could have picked that up. Just as the first time when he'd heard it, it was so deep that it seemed both soft and frighteningly loud. It shook him to his bones.

In a flash, he knew what was coming.

And there was no time to think about what to do.

Harry seemed to have sensed it, too. Louis saw him looking at the room just above the door. Then he turned toward Grandma Swift, shouting.

After that, everything happened at once. Harry knocked the old woman down and fell on top of her. At the same time, Louis sprang and landed on top of both of them.

He was changing even as he did it. Changing and spreading himself out, trying to make himself as wide and flat as possible. A panther rug to cover them.

The brick wall exploded just as the window had, only louder. Shattered with Power, Louis thought. The dragon had recovered... fast.

And then it was raining bricks. One hit Louis in the leg, and he lashed his tail in fury. Another struck his back, and he felt a deep pain. Then one got him in the head, and he saw white light. He could hear Harry shouting under him. It seemed to be his name.

Then nothing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Something wet touched his face. Louis hissed automatically, pawing at it in annoyance.

"Lemme 'lone."

"Boss, wake up. Come on, it's morning already."

Louis opened heavy eyes.

He was dreaming. He had to be. Either that, or the afterlife was full of teenage boys. Niall was bending over him with a dripping washcloth, and Zayn was peering critically over his shoulder. Behind Zayn and Niall was Taylor's anxious little heart-shaped face, her hair falling on either side.

Louis blinked. "I was sure I was dead."

"Well, you got close," Niall said cheerfully. "Me and Paul and Grandma Swift have been working on you most of the night. You're going to be kind of stiff, but I guess your skull was too thick to crack."

Louis sat up and was rewarded with a stabbing pain in his temples. "What happened? Where's Harry?"

"Well, golly gee, Boss, I didn't know you cared-"

"Stop fooling around, Niall! Where's the guy who's got to be alive if the shapeshifters are going to join Circle Daybreak?"

Niall sobered. Zayn said calmly, "He's fine, Louis. This is Taylor's house. Everybody's okay. We got you guys out-"

Louis frowned, struck by a new worry. "You did? Why? I told you to take the girl and go."

Zayn raised an eyebrow wryly. "Yes, well, but the girl didn't want to go. She made us stop and turn back for you."

"For Harry," Louis said. He looked at Taylor, who was wearing a pink nightgown with puffy sleeves and looked about seven. He tried to make his voice patient. "It was good to think of him, but you should have followed the plan."

"Anyway, it worked out," Zayn said. "Apparently, the dragon blew the house down on top of you, but then he walked right over you trying to get to us."

"Yeah. I was kind of hoping he wouldn't realize Harry was there," Louis said. "Or wouldn't realize he was important."

"Well, when he found out we'd already gotten away in the limo, he and his buddies took after us in cars," Niall said. "But Zayn lost them. And then Taylor... insisted, and so we circled back. And there you were. Harry and Paul were digging you out. We helped them and brought you here."

"What about Grandma Swift?"

"She came out of it without a scratch. She's tougher than she looks," Niall said.

"She talked to Taylor's mom last night," Zayn added. "She fixed everything up so we can stay here. You're supposed to be a distant cousin, and the rest of us are your friends. We're from Canada. We graduated last year, and we're touring the U.S by bus. We ran into Taylor last night, and that's why she was late. It's all covered, nice and neat."

"it's all ludicrous." Louis said. He looked at Taylor. "And it's time to stop. Haven't you seen enough yet? That's twice you've been attacked by a monster. Do you really want to try your luck for a third time?"

It was a mistake, Taylor's face had been sweet and anxious, but now Louis could see the walls slam down. The violet eyes hazed over and sparked at the same time.

" _Nobody_ attacked me until you guys came!" Taylor flared. "In fact, nobody's attacked _me_ so far at all. I think it's you people they're after--or maybe Harry. I keep telling you that I'm not the one you're looking for."

This was the time for diplomacy, but Louis was too exasperated to think. "You don't really believe that. Unless you _practice_ being stupid--"

"Stop calling me stupid!" The last word was a piercing shriek. At the same time, Taylor threw something at Louis. He batted it out of the air automatically before it could hit.

"I'm not stupid! I'm just a normal kid, and I like my life. And if I can't live my life, then I don't want to--to do _anything_." She whirled around and stalked out, her nightgown billowing.

Louis stared at the missile he'd caught. It was a stuffed lamb with outrageously long eyelashes and a pink ribbon tied around its white neck.

Zayn folded his arms. "Well, you sure handled that one, Boss."

"Give me a break." Louis tossed the lamb onto the window seat. "And just how did she _make_ you two turn around and come back for us, by the way?"

Niall pursed his lips. "You heard it. Volume control. She kept screaming like--well, I don't know _what_ screams like that. You'd be surprised how effective it is."

"You're agents of Circle Daybreak; you're supposed to be immune to torture." But Louis dropped the subject. "What are you still hanging around for?" he added, as he swung his feet out of the bed and carefully tried his legs. "You're supposed to stick with her, even when she's in the house. Don't stand here staring at _me_."

"You're welcome for putting you back together again," Niall said, his eyes on the ceiling. In the doorway, he turned and added, "And, you know, it wasn't Harry she kept screaming we had to go back and get last night. It was you, Louis."

Louis stared at the door as it shut, bewildered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You cannot go to school," Louis hissed. "Do you hear me? You cannot go to school."

They were all sitting around the kitchen table. Taylor's mother, a lovely woman with a knot of platinum hair coiled on her neck, was making breakfast. She seemed slightly anxious about her four new houseguests, but in a pleasantly excited way. She certainly wasn't suspicious. Grandma Swift had done a good job of brainwashing.

"We're going to have a wonderful Christmas," She said now, and her angelic smile grew brighter. "We can go into Winston-Salem for a Christmas and Candle Tea. Have you ever had a Moravian sugar-cake? I just wish Great-Aunt Simon had been able to stay."

Grandma Swift was gone. Louis didn't know whether to be relieved or frustrated. Despite what he kept saying, as long as the old woman was around, Louis would worry about her. But with her gone, there was nobody to appeal to, nobody who could order Taylor into safekeeping.

So now they were sitting and having this argument. It looked like such a normal breakfast scene, Louis thought dryly. Taylor's father had already left for work. Her mother was bustling around cheerfully. Her little brother was in a high chair making a mess with Cheerios. Too bad that the four nicely dressed teenagers at the table were actually two shapeshifters, a witch, and a vampire.

Harry was directly opposite Louis. There were shadows under his eyes--had anyone gotten any sleep last night?--and he seemed subdued but relaxed. Louis hadn't had a chance to speak to him since the dragon's attack.

Not that he had anything to say.

"Orange juice, Louis?"

"No, thank you, Mrs. Cowell." That was what this family thought their last name was. They didn't realize that witches trace their heritage through the female line and that both Taylor and her mother were therefore Swifts.

"Oh, please, Call me Aunt Anna," the woman said. She had her daughter's violet eyes and the smile of an angel. She was also pouring Louis juice.

Now I see where Taylor gets her scintillating intelligence, Louis thought. "Oh--thanks, Aunt Anna. And, actually, it's pronounced Louie, not Louis."

"Oh, I'm so sorry! It's such a nice name."

"It's usually mispronounced so don't bother yourself to much about it."

"Oh, really? What's your last name?"

Louis broke off a piece of toast, feeling uncomfortable. 

"Raksha."

"That's beautiful!"

Louis could see Harry looking at him. Shapeshifters usually were named for their animal forms, but neither Louis nor Tomlinson fit the pattern. "I was abandoned as a kid," he said in a clipped voice, looking back at Harry. Taylor's mother wouldn't be able to make anything of this, but he might as well satisfy the princeling's curiosity. "So I don't know my real first name. But my last name means 'demon.'"

Taylor's mother paused with the juice carton over Zayn's glass. "Oh. How... nice. Well, then, I see." She blinked a couple of times and walked off without pouring Zayn any juice.

"So what does _Harry_ mean?" Louis said, holding his gaze challengingly and handing his full glass to Zayn.

He smiled--a little wryly--for the first time since sitting down. "'Calm.'"

Louis snorted. "It figures."

"I like Raksha better."

Louis didn't answer. With "Aunt Anna" safely in the kitchen, he could speak again to Taylor. "You understood before, right? That you can't go to school?"

"I have to go to school." For somebody who looked as if she was made of spun glass, Taylor ate a lot. She spoke around a mouthful of microwave pancake.

"It's out of the question. How can we go with you? What are we supposed to _be_ , for Goddess's sake?"

"My long-lost cousin from Canada and his friends," Taylor said indistinctly. "Or you can all be exchange students who're here to study our American educational system." Before Louis could say anything, she added, "Hey, how come _you_ guys aren't at school? Don't you have schools?"

"We've got the same ones you do," Niall said. "Except Zayn--he graduated last year. But Louis and I are seniors like you. We just take time off for this stuff."

"I bet your grades are as bad as mine," Taylor said unemotionally. "Anyway, I have to go to school this week. There are all sorts of class parties and things. You can come. It'll be fun."

Louis wanted to hit her with the pot of grits.

He had a problem, though. Taylor's little brother Alex had escaped from his high chair and was climbing up his leg. He looked down at him uneasily. He wasn't good with family-type things, and he especially wasn't good with children.

"Okay," he said. "Go on back and sit down." He peeled him off and tried to start him in the right direction. He turned around and put his arms up. "Lou-lou. Lou-lou."

You mean Louis, Louis," Taylor's mother said, coming in with a plate of sausages. She ruffled his white-blonde hair.

"Louie, Louie," Niall corrected helpfully.

Alex climbed into Louis' lap, grabbed his shirt, and hoisted himself into a standing position. He found himself looking into huge violet baby eyes. Witch eyes.

"Lou-lou," he said flatly, and give him a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

Niall grinned. "Having trouble?"

The kid had two chubby arms around Louis' neck now and was nudging Louis' chin with his head like a kitten looking for pets. He had a good grip, too. This time, he couldn't peel him off.

"It's just--distracting," he said, giving up and petting him awkwardly. It was ridiculous. How could Louis argue with baby giggles in his ears?

"You kind of look sweet together," Taylor observed. "I'm getting dressed for school now. You guys can do whatever you want."

She floated off while Louis was trying to think of a reply.

Zayn and Niall hastily followed her. Harry got up to help Taylor's mother with the dishes.

Louis tugged at the baby, who clung like a sloth. Maybe there was shapeshifter blood in this family.

"Lou-lou... pui!" That was what it sounded like.

"Pwee?" Louis glanced nervously at his diaper.

"He means 'pretty,'" Taylor's mother said, coming back in. "It's funny. He doesn't usually take to people like that. He likes animals better."

"Oh. Well, he has good taste." Louis said. He finally succeeded in detaching him and gave him back to his mother. Then he started down the hallway after Taylor, muttering, "Too bad about his eyesight."

"I think his eyesight's just fine," Harry said, right behind him. Louis turned, realizing they were alone in the hall.

Harrys faint smile faded. "I really want to talk to you," he said.


	7. Chapter VII

Louis faced him squarely.

"Yes, sir? Or should I say 'my lord'?"

He flinched but tried to hide it. "I should have told you in the beginning."

Louis wasn't about to get into a discussion of it. "What do you want?"

"Can we go in there?" He nodded toward what looked like a small library-office combination.

Louis didn't want to, but he couldn't think of any acceptable reason to refuse. He followed Harry and crossed his arms when he closed the door.

"You saved my life." He wasn't quite facing Louis; he was looking out the window at a cold silver sky. Against it, he had a profile like a young prince on an ancient coin.

Louis shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. The bricks didn't kill me; maybe they wouldn't have killed you."

"But you were trying to save my life. I did something that was probably stupid--again--and you had to cover for me."

"I did it because it's my job, Harry. That's what I _do_."

"You got hurt because of me. When I dug myself out of that rubble, I thought you _were_ dead." He said it flatly, without any particular intonation. But the hairs on Louis' arms rose.

"I've got to get back to Taylor."

"Louis."

There was something wrong with him. He was facing the door; heading out, but his voice stopped Louis in his tracks.

"Louis. Please."

He was aware that he was coming up behind him.

His entire skin was up in gooseflesh. Louis was _too_ aware of Harry, that was the problem. He could feel the air that he displaced. He could feel his body heat.

He just stood there.

"Louis. Ever since I first saw you..." He stopped and tried again. "You were--gleaming. All that energy swirling around you and those blue eyes. And then you changed. I don't think I ever really understood what it meant to be a shapeshifter until I saw that. You were a boy and then you were a cat, but you were always both. He let out his breath. "I'm putting this badly."

Louis needed to think of something to say-- _now_ \--. But he couldn't, and he couldn't seem to move.

"When I saw that, for the first time, I wanted to shapeshift. Before that, I didn't really care, and everyone was always telling me to be careful, because whatever shape I choose the first time is the one I'm stuck with. But that's not what I'm trying to say. I'm trying..."

He reached out. Louis felt the warmth of his hand between his shoulder blades, through his hair, through the fabric of his spare jumpsuit.

Louis shivered.

He couldn't help it. He felt so strange. Dizzy and supernaturally clear at the same time. Weak.

He didn't know what was happening to him, only that it was powerful and terrible.

Harrys hand remained on his back, warmth from it soaking into his skin.

"I realize how much you dislike me," Harry said quietly. There was no self-pity in his voice, but he seemed to be getting the words out painfully. "And I'm not going to try to change that. But I just wanted you to know, I also realize what you've done for me. I needed to say thank you." There was something swelling in Louis' chest like a balloon. Bigger and bigger. He clamped his lips together, frightened as he had never been when fighting monsters.

"And.. I won't forget it," Harry was going on, still quiet. "Someday, I'll find a way to repay you."

Louis felt desperate. What was he _doing_ to him? He wasn't in control of himself; he was trembling and terrified that the thing in his chest was going to escape.

All he could imagine doing was turning around and hitting him, like a trapped animal lashing out at someone trying to rescue it.

"It's so strange, " he said, and Louis had the feeling that he had almost forgotten him and was talking to himself. "When I was growing up, I rejected the Power of my family. All my ancestors, they were supposed to turn into demons when they unleashed it. I thought that it was better not to fight--if that was possible. It seems unrealistic now."

Louis could feel more than warmth now. There were little electrical zings spreading out from his hand, running down the insides of his arms. Not real ones, of course. Not the Power he was talking about, like the Power used by the dragon or Niall. But it felt awfully close. His whole body was filled with buzzing.

Some people shouldn't have to fight, he thought giddily. But, no, that was insane. Everybody had to fight; that was what life was about. If you didn't fight, you were weak. You were prey.

He was still talking in that abstract tone. "I know you think--"

Louis' panic hit flashpoint. He whirled around. "You don't know _anything_ about what I think. You don't know anything about _me_. I don't know whatever gave you the idea that you did."

Harry looked startled but not defensive. The silver light behind him lit the edges of his curly hair.

"I'm sorry," he said gently.

"Stop being sorry!"

"Are you saying I'm wrong? You don't think I'm a spoiled and pampered prince who doesn't know anything about real life and has to be baby-sat?"

Louis was disconcerted. That was exactly what he thought--but if it were true, then why did he have this strange feeling of falling?

"I think you're like _her_ ," he said, keeping his words short and brutal to keep them under control. He didn't need to specify the _her_. "You're like this whole ridiculous family. Happy mommy, happy baby, happy Christmas. They're ready to love everybody who comes along. And they're living in a happy happy idealistic world that has nothing to do with reality."

The corner of Harrys mouth turned up wryly, although his eyes were still serious. "I think that's what I said."

"And it sounds harmless, doesn't it? But it isn't. It's blind and destructive. What do you want to bet that Taylor's mother really thinks my name is Louis now? She can't deal with it being 'demon,' so she just happily changes the world to fit."

"You could be right." Harry wasn't smiling at all now, and there was something in his eyes, something lost and hopeless that made Louis feel more panicked than ever.

He spoke savagely to hold off the fear. "You want to know what real life is like? My mother left me in a cardboard box in a parking lot. It was fixed up with newspapers inside, like something you'd use for a puppy. That was because I couldn't wear diapers, I was stuck in my halfway form--a baby with a tail and ears like a cat. Maybe that was why she couldn't deal with me, but I'll never know. The only thing I have of hers is a note that was in the box. I kept it."

Louis fumbled in the jumpsuit's pocket. He had never meant to show this to anyone, certainly not somebody he'd known for less than twenty-four hours. But he had to convince Harry; he had to make him go away for good. 

His wallet was slim--no photos, just money and ID. He pulled out a folded slip of paper, with creases worn smooth by time and writing that had faded from blue ink to pale purple. Its right edge was a ragged tear, but the words were on the left and clear enough.

"It was her legacy to me," Louis said. "She was trying to pass in the truth, what she'd learned about life."

Harry took the paper as if it were a hurt bird.

Louis watched his eyes move over it. He knew the words by heart, of course, and right now he heard them ringing in his mind. There were only twelve of them--his mother had been a master of succinctness.

_People die..._  
 _Beauty fades..._  
 _Love changes..._  
 _And you will always be alone._

Louis could tell where Harry was by the way his eyes widened in horror.

He smiled at him, not nicely, and took the paper back.

Harry looked at him. And despite everything he knew about him, he was surprised at the sheer _depth_ of his shock. He stared at him with those gold-green eyes that went on for miles--and then he stepped forward.

" _You don't believe that_ ," he said fiercely, and grabbed him by the shoulders.

Louis was startled. He'd seen him in action. How could he be as stupid to grab him?

He seemed to be completely unaware of his danger. There was nothing calm or hesitant about him now. He was staring at him with a kind of stricken tenderness, as if he'd just told him he had a terminal disease. It was as if he were trying to pour love and warmth and light into him by a direct connection.

"I won't let you think that," he said. "I won't let you."

"It's just the truth. If you can't accept that, you won't drown in life. Whatever happens, you'll be able to cope."

"It's not all the truth. If you believe it is, why do you work for Circle Daybreak?"

"They raised me," Louis said shortly. "They snatched me out of the hospital nursery when they read the reports about me in the paper. They realized what I was and that humans couldn't take care of me. That's why I work for them--to pay them back. It's my job."

"That's not the only reason. I've _seen_ you work, Louis."

He could feel warmth spreading from Harrys hands on his shoulders. He knocked them aside and stood tall. There was a core of iciness inside him, and he hung on to that.

"Don't get me wrong," he said. "I don't save people out of idealism. I don't risk my neck for just _anybody_ \--only the ones I get paid for."

"You mean if Taylor's little brother was in danger, you wouldn't save him. You'd stand there and watch him burn to death in a fire or drown in a riptide."

Louis had a sinking feeling. He held his chin up and said, "Exactly. If it meant putting myself in danger to save him, I wouldn't do it."

Harry shook his head, flatly positive. "No."

The sinking feeling got worse.

"That's a lie," he continued, holding Louis' eyes. "I've seen you in action. I talked to Zayn and Niall last night. And I've seen your _mind_. You're doing what you do because you think it's right. And you are..." He paused as if to find the words, then spoke deliberately. "You are the soul of honour."

And you're insane, Louis thought. He _really_ needed to get away now. The sinking was becoming a terrible weakness spreading through him. And although he knew that what he was saying was complete garbage, he couldn't seem to stop listening.

"You put on a good show," Harry said, "But the truth is that you're brave and gallant and _decent_. You have your own code, and you would never break it. And anybody who knows you sees that. Don't you know what your team thinks of you? You should have seen their faces--and Taylor's--when they thought you were dead in that rubble. Your soul is straight as a sword, and you have more honour than anyone I've ever known."

His eyes were the colour of the first new leaves in spring, the kind you look up to see the sunlight pouring through. Louis was a meat-eater and had never cared much about flowers or other vegetation, but now he remembered a line from a poem, and it froze in his mind like lightning: _Nature's first green is gold._ This was the colour the poet meant.

You could drown in eyes like that.

Harry was holding his arms again. He couldn't seem to stop reaching for Louis, as if he were some soul in danger of being lost forever.

"Your life's been so hard. You deserve to have good things happen to you now--only good things. I wish..." He broke off, and a sort of tremor went through his face.

No, Louis thought. I won't let you make me weak. I won't listen to your lies.

But the problem was that Harry _didn't_ lie. He was one of those idiot idealist types who said what they believed. And he shouldn't care what he believed, but he found that he did. He cared terribly.

Harry just stood there looking at him with tears in his gem-bright eyes.

Something ripped inside Louis. And then everything changed.

Louis couldn't understand what was happening at first. In panic, all he could think was that he was losing himself. Losing his armour, his hardness, everything he needed to keep alive. Some part of him deep inside was melting, flowing toward Harry.

He tried to snatch it back, but it was no good. He couldn't stop it.

With a distant shock, he realized that he had shut his eyes. He was falling, falling--and he didn't care.

Something caught him.

He left the warmth of arms around him, supporting him. And he felt himself lean into it, relaxing, letting him take some of his weight, as if someone else were controlling his body.

So warm...

That was when Louis discovered something strange. That warmth could give you shivers.

Being close like this, feeling Harry warm and solid and there to hang on to--it made a shiver of pleasure go through him.

And then he felt the true connection.

It wasn't a physical thing. The spark that passed between them connected them mind to mind. It was a riveting flash of complete understanding.

His heart all but exploded.

 _It's you_. The voice was in his mind, the same voice he'd heard yesterday when he had tried to save Louis from the dragon. It was filled with wonder and discovery. _It's you... the one I've been looking for. You're the one..._

And Louis would have told him how insane that was, except that it was just what he was feeling himself. It was as if he had just turned around and unexpectedly found herself facing a figure from one of his dreams. A person he _knew_ instinctively, just as he knew his own mind.

 _I know you, too._ Harry's voice in his head said. _We're so much alike..._

 _We're not,_ Louis thought. But the protest sounded feeble even to him. And trying to hang on to his anger and cynicism right now seemed silly--pointless. Like a kid insisting that nobody loved him and he was going to go play on the freeway.

 _We belong together,_ Harry said simply. _Like this._

Warm tingles. Louis could feel the force of his love like a bright light shining at him. And he couldn't... resist... any longer...

His arms came up to hold Harry back. His face turned up because he was short, and soon their lips were only an inch apart.

The kiss was shivery, delightful, and very sweet.

After an endless time of floating in a golden haze, Louis shivered again.

_There's something... something I have to remember..._

_I love you,_ Harry said back.

_Yes, but there's something I've forgotten..._

_We're together,_ he said. _I don't want to remember anything else._

And _that_ was probably true. He couldn't really blame him. Who would want to disturb this warmth and closeness and quiet joy?

Still, they had been talking about something--a long time ago, when he had been alone. Something that had made him terribly unhappy.

 _I won't let you be unhappy. I won't let you be alone, either,_ he said.

He stroked Louis' hair with his fingertips. That was all, but it almost short-circuited Louis' thought processes.

But not completely.

_Alone... I remember._

His mother's note.

_You will always be alone._

Harry's arms tightened around him. _Don't. Don't think about that. Were together. I love you..._

_No._

With a wrench. Louis pulled himself away. He found himself standing in the library on his own two feet, staring at Harry. He looked shocked and stricken, as if he'd just been slapped out of a dream.

"Louis--"

"No!" he spat. "Don't touch me!"

"I won't touch you. But I can't let you run away. And I can't pretend I don't love you."

"Love," Louis snarled, "is weakness." He saw his mother's note lying on the floor where he'd dropped it and snatched it up. "And nobody is making me sentimental and weak! Nobody!"

It wasn't until he was out the door that he remembered he had left out the strongest argument of all.

He _couldn't_ love him. It was impossible.

He was destined to marry the Witch Child.

The fate of the world depended on it.


	8. Chapter VIII

Louis was tempted to check the wards, but he knew it wouldn't do any good. He wasn't sensitive enough to the witch energies to gauge them. They'd been put up by Grandma Swift and checked by Niall, and he would have to trust to that.

The wards were keyed so that only the Cowell family and ordinary humans could come inside. No Night Person could enter expect Zayn, Niall, Louis, and Harry. Which meant, Louis thought with a grim smile, that any lost witch relatives of Taylor's mother who came by were going to get quite a surprise. An invisible wall was going to be blocking them from crossing the threshold.

As long as nobody on the inside removed the wards, the house was safer than Fort Knox.

Grandma Swift had also taken the limo, Louis found. Sometime during the night, it had been replaced by an inconspicuous Ford sedan parked at the curb. The keys had been in a manila envelope dropped through the mail slot in the front door, along with a map of Lucy Lee Bethea High School.

Circle Daybreak was efficient.

"I didn't finish my _hair_ ," Taylor complained as Zayn hustled her to the car, "It's only half _done_ ."

"It looks terrific," Niall said from behind her.

I don't even think the little nitwit has to brush it, Louis thought. It's so fine that he couldn't make two hairs tangle if he tried.

"And I left my _scarf_ \--"

"Here it is." Louis lassoed her. The scarf was ridiculous, crushed velvet in muted metallic colours, with a six-inch fringe. Purely decorative.

Taylor choked as Louis wound it around a few times and pulled it tight.

"A little aggressive, Boss?" Niall asked, extricating Taylor before she could turn blue.

"Worried about being late," Louis said shortly. But he saw Zayn eyeing him, too.

Harry was the last to come out of the house. He was pale and serious--that much Louis saw before he shifted his eyes past him. Taylor's mother actually remained standing at the door with the baby in her arms.

"Say bye-bye to your sister's friends. Bye-bye."

"Lou-lou," the baby said. "Lou-lou!"

"Wave to him," Niall stage-whispered.

Louis gritted his teeth. He half-waved, keeping his senses open for any sound of an impending attack. The baby held out his arms toward him.

"Pui!"

"Let's get _out_ of here." Louis almost shoved Taylor into the backseat.

Zayn took the wheel, and Harry sat up front with him. Niall ran around to get in the back on the other side of Taylor.

As they pulled out, Louis saw the outside of the house for the first time.

It was a nice house--white clapboard, two and a half stories, Colonial Revival. The street was nice, too, lined with dogwoods that would be a mass of white when they bloomed. The sort of street where people sat outside on their rockers in spring and somebody was bound to have a stand of bees in the side yard making sourwood honey.

Although Louis had been all over the United States, sent from one Circle Daybreak group to another, the hospital where he'd been found had been near a neighbourhood like this. I might have grown up someplace like this. If they'd kept me. My parents...

Do I _hate_ her? Louis wondered suddenly. I couldn't. It's not her fault.

Oh, no, of course not, the voice in his mind said. Not her fault that she's beautiful and perfect and has parents who love her and blue fire in her veins and that she is going to be forced, whether she wants to or not, to marry Harry...

Which I don't _care_ about, Louis thought. He was shocked at himself. When had he ever let emotion interfere with his job? He was allowing himself to be distracted--he had allowed himself to be distracted all morning--when there was something vitally important at stake.

No more, he told himself fiercely. From now on, I think about nothing but the mission. Years of mental discipline came in handy now; he was able to push everything to the side and focus with icy clarity on what had to be done.

"--stopped a train in its tracks," Niall was saying.

"Really?" There was faint interest in Taylor's voice. At least she'd stopped talking about her hair, Louis thought.

"Really. It was one of those BART trains in San Francisco, like a subway train, you know. The two girls were on the tracks, and the Wild Power stopped the train dead before it could hit them. That's what the blue fire can do."

"Well, I know I can't do anything like that," Taylor said flatly. "So I can't be a Wild Power. Or whatever." The last words were tacked on quickly.

Zayn raised a cool eyebrow. "Have you ever _tried_ to stop a train?"

While Taylor bit a fingertip and pondered that, Niall said, "You have to do it right, you know. First, you have to make blood flow, and then you have to concentrate. It's not something you can expect to do perfectly the very first time."

"If you want to start practising," Zayn added, "We can help."

Taylor shuddered. "No, thank you. I faint when I see blood. And anyway, I'm not it."

"Too bad," Zayn murmured. "We could use the blue fire on our side today."

They were pulling up to a charming old brown brick high school. Neither Harry nor Louis had said a word throughout the ride.

But now Louis leaned forward. "Zayn, drive past it. I want to check the layout first."

Zayn swung the car into a circular driveway that went past the school's oversized front doors. Louis looked right and left, taking in everything about the surroundings. He could see Niall doing the same thing--and Harry, too. He was focusing on the same danger spot he was. He had the instinct for strategy. 

"Go around the block and circle back," Louis said.

Taylor stirred. "I thought you were worried about me being late."

"I'm more worried about you being dead," Louis interrupted. "What do you think, Zayn?" 

The side door on the west. Easy to pull up reasonably close, no bushes around it for nasty surprises to hide in." 

"That's my pick, too. Okay, everybody, listen. Zayn's going to slow the car down in the right place. Slow down, not stop. When I give the signal, we're all going to jump out and go directly to that door. We are not going to pause. We are going to move as a group. Taylor, are you paying attention? From now on, you don't go _anywhere_ unless Niall's in front of you and I'm beside you." 

"And where's Harry?" Taylor said. 

Louis cursed himself mentally. He wasn't used to working with a fourth team member. "He'll be behind us--okay, Harry?" He made himself look his way. 

"Yes. Whatever you say." There wasn't the slightest hint of sarcasm on his face. He was dead serious. Absolutely miserable, earnest, and deadly serious. 

"And, Zayn, once you've parked, you join us and take the other side. What room's your first class in, Taylor?" 

"Three twenty-six," Taylor said dismally. "U.S. History with Mr. Wanamaker. He went to New York to try to be an actor, but all he got was some disease from not eating enough stuff with vitamins. So he came back, and now he's really strict unless you can get him to do his impressions of the presidents--" 

"All right." Louis broke in. "We're coming to the door." 

"--and he's actually pretty funny when he does Theodore Roosevelt--or do I mean the other one--" 

" _Now,_ " Louis said, and pushed her as Niall pulled. 

They all made it out smoothly, although Taylor yelped a little. Louis kept a good grip on her arm as they hurried to the door. 

"I don't think I like this way of coming to school." 

"We can turn right around and go back home," Louis said. Taylor shut up. 

Harry kept pace behind them, silent and focused. It was Zayn's usual position when the team wasn't heading for a car, and Louis couldn't help feeling the difference. He didn't like having someone behind him he couldn't trust absolutely. And although the enemies didn't seem to know yet that Harry was important, if they found out, he'd become a target. 

Face it, he thought. This setup is a disaster, security-wise. This is a horrendous accident waiting to happen. 

His nerves were wound so tightly that he jumped at the slightest sound. 

They shepherded Taylor to her locker, then up a staircase to the third floor. The halls were almost empty, which was exactly as Louis had planned it. 

But of course that meant they were late for class. 

Zayn slid in beside them just as they opened the door. They entered as a group, and the teacher stopped talking and looked at them. So did everybody else in the room. 

Quite a few jaws dropped open. 

Louis allowed himself a grim inner smile. 

Yeah, they were probably a bit of a shock for a small town. Four Night People--well, former Night People, anyway. A witch who was almost as small as Taylor, with a mop of vivid brunette-blond hair and a face like a pixie on holiday. A vampire boy who looked like cool perfection straight out of a magazine, with cropped black-coloured hair and a strangely penetrating gaze. A shapeshifter boy who could have taken the place of any prince in a book of fairy tales, with hair like old oak and classically sculptured features. 

And of course, a panther. Which happened to be walking on two feet at the moment, in the guise of a short boy with a tense, wary expression and brown hair that swirled witchlike around him. 

And, of course, there was Taylor in the midst of them, looking like a ballet dancer who had blundered in from the Nutcracker Suite. 

There was a silence as the two groups stared at each other. Then the teacher snapped shut his book and advanced on them. Louis held himself ready. He had a neatly trimmed beard and a dangerous smile. 

It was Taylor who took him on, though. She stepped forward before Louis could draw a breath to speak. 

"Mr. Wanamaker! These are my cousins! Well--some of them are my cousins. They're from... California. Hollywood! They're here to... do research for..." 

"We're really just visiting," Louis cut in. 

"A new show about a high school. Not like that other show. It's more of a reality-based--" 

"It's just a visit," Louis said.


End file.
